OH-Sen: Lets Hear You Pitch Your Candidate
The Democratic primary is still a year off, but there have already been several blog polls on the Senate race, so I think it’s time to switch it up. I don’t want to hear just who you’re voting for, but why you’re voting for them.
That’s right, you have to do more work than two clicks for this one. In the comments of this post, I’d like to see you write up a personal endorsement of a candidate explaining what you like about them. Make it as long or short as you like, but remember that this is a chance to reach people like me who are undecided.
Please be sure to use your candidates name in the title of your comment to help me keep an accurate tally. I’ll post the final tally and some highlights on Monday.
I am 100% behind Tom Ganley, the Cleveland-area car dealer challenging Rob Portman for the Republican nomination.
Why? You ask...
Because now the Republicans need to waste a bunch of money fighting a primary battle just like we do.
When I asked questions to both Jennifer Brunner and Lee Fisher about a rather obscure subject, gifted education, I think that their answers were telling.
-Brunner was remarakably honest and wrote an answer that was straight from the heart. This is the line that really stood out: "Ohio's children are wonderfully diverse, and our schools should celebrate that diversity not just in word, but with support for students with all sorts of gifts and talents." (This answer gives me hope that there might actually be someone who cares about this issue!!)
-Fisher gave what I view as a politicians answer, dancing around the edges and then talking about Governor Strickland's support for a dedicated source for Gifted Education (which, according to a gifted teacher I volunteer with several hours a week is actually not entirely true, but anyway...) This line stood out to me, "As a United States Senator, I will respect the flexibility needed for the state and local school districts to decide what is best for each individual student, while strongly advocating for policies that give Ohio students the world class education they need to compete and thrive in our global economy. " (Sorry, Lee, when you come from a high school like the one I just graduate from where they haven't passed a new operating levy in 17 years, a 'world class education' is receding by the day. There are some decisions that are too important to be left to five school board members and a backwards community...)
At the end of the day I will support whomever wins the nomination, but I feel that Jennifer is so much more genuine. Her answer shows me why she won the Profile in Courage Award last year.
Jennifer Brunner has distinguished herself in many ways, as a lawyer, a judge, a wife, a mother and as our Secretary of State.
She has withstood the avalanche of criticism volleyed at her by the GOP, and has emerged stronger for it. Jennifer has reformed an office that had become a national laughingstock under her Repub predecessor.
Jennifer has become a leader we can all get behind, she has earned our support and repect through her hard work and perseverance.
Lee Fisher, a nice guy, but as Leo Durocher once said, "nice guys finish last."
Lee barely won the AG's office, and after 4 years, lost it even though he had all the advantages of incumbency and fundraising.
Lee ran a lackluster race against Bob Taft for governor that kept us in the political wilderness in Ohio; he lost big to arguably the dullest most uninteresting governor this state has ever seen.
Until now, Lee has shyed away from running in a tough race when his party deperately needed his leadership.
Jennifer Brunner represents the future, with the vision and courage to stand up and make the hard choices we need in a US Senator. That's why she has my wholehearted support.
First of all, Jennifer Brunner scares me as a campaigner. She has been an awesome SOS, but that's a race she would have lost without the Democratic tidal wave of 2006. There are two reasons for this: (1) simple voting trends and (2) the party chipped in about 1/5th of her (fairly tiny) amount of money directly. The Republicans will raise $4 million for this race, and Jennifer Brunner didn't even raise half of this in her entire time as a SOS or candidate for SOS. (She declared in 2005, and continued to fundraise for her SOS committee until 2008. In other words, at least half of this "less than half of what the Republicans will raise" was raised after the 2006 campaign). Granted, she has significant institutional backing for her Senate campaign, which makes a difference. However, she is unproven at the least.
On the other hand, Lee Fisher is a sincere person and proven to be an extremely good campaigner. Yes, he lost statewide twice. Notice how many other Democrats won statewide during this time period (i.e., none). He has a proven ability to build relationships and raise money, as well as a fantastic track record of public service to run on. Not only did he have significant resources for his statewide campaigns, but he was an integral part of Strickland's gubernatorial campaign. This is not to say that Sec. Brunner doesn't have an excellent track record as a public servant, but Lt. Gov. Fisher is proven.
I have to concede, however, that either would beat Portman. The Bush administration is a big enough skeleton that it takes up his entire closet -- there's not even enough room for his rubber stamp Congressional voting record in there. With the way Ohio is trending, a typical Democratic campaign should be able to beat him. He is a canned piece of crap, but I am more comfortable with Fisher's ability to beat him.
What I said about Brunner's SOS fundraising in the second paragraph is being compared to what the Republican party will raise for the 2010 SOS race to respectfully show Sec. Brunner's relative lack of fundraising ability.
You can aegue til the cows come home about whether ANYONE other than maybe Strickland would have been elected if not for the "Democratic tidal wave" but the fact is she WAS elected strongly. I think Lee is a much more tepid and uninteresting campaigner than she is, and especially weak in relating to non-urban audiences. Sure, he's sincere, I guess (I really hate to pass judgement on things like that because how can you know, really?) but it takes more than that. And with all the other factors taken into account, i don't think lee is any more "proven" as a campaigner and vote-getter than Jennifer. Yes, I don't want to brand him a loser either even though he has mostly lost statewide, because other factors came into play there too.
i think making this all about fundraising, which seems to be about 75% of your argument, is a huge mistake.
I think ANY of our candidates can beat Portman IF we focus the campaign totally on jobs — their creation and destruction. I think Lee would be a tad more vulnerable here as Director of Development because not many jobs were created under him – not his fauly, actually thefault of Portman's crew. But you know those Republicans will lie about anything.
...you mean 50,000 created and 200,000 saved in 2 years, and winning the Governor's Cup, awarded to the state with the most new or expanded business facilities, both years he headed DoD.
I don't think that will make him vulnerable, I think its something to be proud of.
Honestly, after looking at Brunner's campaign staff, I might rethink my position.
However, I would like to defend my comparison between her SOS fundraising and the Republicans 2010 fundraising. Frankly, no, I don't think that she "will be able to raise all kinds of money" just because she's running for Senate. Her past work falls far short of what it could be; bear in mind, I'm not talking about what she did for 2006, I'm talking about 2006 plus her entire time as an incumbent SOS. Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.
Yet, this might be a moot point, as she seems to be taking a fundamentally different approach to this campaign. That is something that I didn't anticipate her doing, and I'm encouraged by it.
Of course things outside of fundraising matter, especially in a high-profile campaign. My point was that her history with fr is so bad that I worry that she could prove detrimentally weak on that front. Yet, I would be interested to see how Lee and Jennifer perform in southeast Ohio -- neither of them seem to be exceptionally good with the Appalachain crowd. I would concede that Jennifer is likely a significant improvement over Lee, but both of them probably need to work on it.